So, this post is a bit of a "test run". When I was in 8th grade, The Day After aired on television. It was the junior high equivalent of a water-cooler topic - we were ALL talking about it beforehand, and we were definitely all talking about it the day after. As a movie, it wasn't the most perfect example of speculative fiction, but it served as great fodder for classroom discussion (especially in the middle of the cold war!). I remember a friend and I, during summer vacation, creating our own fictional bunker in case of nuclear war - we'd spend hours just figuring out how long we'd have to stay underground, who we'd like to bring with us and what kind of sewage/water/food systems we'd have to subsist on. The Day After was probably my formal introduction to the subgenre, likely the first I'd thought of it, and was the kickoff to a lifetime's fascination.

Sub genre of what, you ask? Is apocalypse/aftermath fiction horror? Is it science fiction? I've long had a fear it will become science FACT. I like the umbrella term "Speculative Fiction". Under its wings you might find Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, etc. And I suppose, depending on the type of apocalypse, you would then go on to put things under those subcategories...zombie apocalypse might fall under horror, whilst robots destroying the world might fit better with Science Fiction.

​In high school, I read my first Stephen King novel, The Stand, which tells the story of a world decimated through a superflu plague. Another of my friends had also read it, and we spent hours on the phone each night imagining what we might do in such a scenario, where we might travel, what and who we might bring, and how we might rebuild society. Obviously, I was hooked.

Several decades later, I am no less fascinated and intrigued by the different iterations of fictional apocalypse, and have happily devoured many television, film and book tales with varied and imaginative end times. I’ve even written a couple of post-apocalyptic plays. And there is no shortage of end days’ paranoia, given the current political situation and global climate, to think about. Climate change anyone? Nuclear war? How ‘bout some ebola?

Right now, my intention is to start an entire apocalyptic blog on the subject and of course, all its potential subcategories, because, though I have very little control over things unfolding on the world stage, at least I can have some control over this. I'll discuss zombies, aliens, asteroids, WWIII, acts of god, no armageddon is off limits, and maybe I'll throw in speculation about how one might survive such a thing, and even discuss putting together different sorts of survival kits for your more run-of-the-mill cataclysm. I'll make book, film and tv recommendations on each subcategory, because lord knows I've consumed a lion's share!

If this is your thing and you're intrigued, feel free to take a look! And if you have any suggestions, thoughts, or ideas on topics you might enjoy reading about within the subject, please feel free to share your feedback.

It freaks me out how many articles I'm stumbling across that are pretty much saying we're about at the end of our rope. If you've never seen it, google "Earth 2100" - it's a mockumentary of sorts, about an hour long, that aired in 2009 that gives a fictional (but scientific) account of future history from 2009 up to the year 2100 - it follows a fictional character called Lucy who was born in 2009 and basically tells how her life unfolded, and supposes the slow, inevitable collapse of human civilization due to climate change - but explores not only the climate change itself, but other things triggered due to climate change - political unrest, border issues, plague triggered by flooding, etc. And if you look at our world now, it's pretty much headed in exactly that direction, and people in power who are deniers are likely going to help it further towards that conclusion. It's a good, if chilling, watch. Things are likely to go from not great to bad to worse to unlivable, and our generation will probably see some of that - maybe not to the unlivable part, but close. SO glad I didn't breed.

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Melisa

5/2/2017 05:11:49 pm

I love this! I am looking forward to more posts & book/tv/movie suggestions. I too was fascinated/traumatized by The Day After. For years I had recurring dreams of nuclear apocalypse & your basic biblical end of days. Good times! :)

Arrrrgh - YES! For years, me too - had a very specific, recurring nuclear holocaust nightmare of the missiles being launched and me waiting for them to hit and to be vaporized. Then, a few years ago, they were showing The Day After on SyFy and I tuned in only to discover that my nightmare visual was exactly that moment in the movie where they launched the missiles! ...I guess it stayed in some of our collective psyches, since we were so young and impressionable when it aired!

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Jamie

5/3/2017 03:41:33 am

THE DAY AFTER completely traumatized me and left with me nightmares and anxiety for months afterwards. It felt like a very real possibility that I could not control... there were two other films around the same time, THREADS and TESTAMENT. Those were lacking the special effects, but still terrifying.

Thanks for reminding me about Threads and Testament - I watched both of those as well around the same time! I remember Threads was set in the UK and was almost more of a documentary, though it did follow the pregnant woman (RUTH! I have a weeeeird memory for stupid details) through her pregnancy and early motherhood until she died and looked super old, but I think was only in her 30's. And her daughter got preggers and had a mutant baby! ...though they just showed her face screaming at the end when she saw it, and didn't show US the baby. Also Testament was great - they aired it on PBS, and definitely focused more on the trials of the one family, rather than so much on the facts - they never even really addressed what had happened, or what the political situation was that led to it, but that left an impact as well - again, thanks for bringing those up!

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Kris

5/3/2017 07:41:24 pm

This is great... and oh-so timely. I look forward to reading more! The day I watched 9/11 unfold before my eyes from the streets (a midtown high-rise, and a downtown rooftop) of Manhattan... I learned this: truth IS weirder than any fiction, ever and *anything* is possible - if we can think it or visualize it... it's possible. Most unfortunately, there's a helluva lot of crazy shit unfolding across the globe, daily, that leaves me very concerned & disturbed about what's *possible*.

So true...and I find that, since I can't control any of THAT, watching or reading about natural disasters/armageddon is cathartic for me in a way I can't quite articulate...if I think about it, I've spent more than half my life EXTREMELY AWARE that the world could end at any time. But maybe by writing about it extensively, I can at least abate some of the daily anxiety? We shall see...

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Alan

5/9/2017 07:28:34 pm

I'm totally fascinated by end of the world fiction (horror?) I'm not sure I've even seen The Day After so of course I'm going to remedy that.